Joshua's Blog

Well everybody, I’m in the airport in Kenya, thought I should probably give you an update on how things are going. I guess the last update was on Saturday just before the blank at the stadium. Man, I have to tell you how awesome that day was. Well first I went to my last church service at GMC which of course was good but sad cuz I had to say goodbye to so many people who I love very much. (this next bit will only be interesting to the people who have been before) But I found out that the temporary building that was made while GMC was building the new church has been scheduled for destruction! After the earth quakes in the beginning of February hit the country’s western province the government decided to take swift action. They had been telling churches that where still worshiping in buildings built from wood that they must make plans for new buildings (because many people died in the earthquake from buildings that were not built adequately) …. Okay, now I’m on a plane on route to Cape town… Anyways, so apparently GMC’s worship sanctuary is the last wooden structure left in Kigali, and so they have just given the ordinance that they must rebuild or host their services in a different building. The blessing is that they where left for last before being forced, but this will sure make things difficult! The small church building that they do have (currently for children’s church) can only hold about 300 chairs… so they will need to have four different services every Sunday… Just imagine if Pastor Darryl had to preach (or find adequate preachers) four times a week! So yeah, that’s going to be rather interesting… but the cool thing about this by the time I go back they will have rebuilt a solid structure.

After the first service (the English service) Janvier approached me and asked if I was going to the Rick Warren event at the stadium. I told him that I was. He then asked me, “well, where are your black pants!” I was worried for a moment thinking it was social unacceptable to not dress up for something like that… but as it turns out, he then informed me that the worship team will be making up a good portion of the mass choir on the stadium field, he also informed me that he would like me to be apart of the program! I of course was taken back! I told him… no way! I couldn’t! He managed to convince me saying that the testimony of having a white Muzungu on the field would be really good and that it might actually convince other white people to be apart of the music programs at the churches they go to. He also said that there probably would be more white people (from Saddleback church) and that he’s assuming that half the songs would be in English.

So here we are… can anyone find Waldo? Ha-ha! I’ll be perfectly honest, I made a fool of myself… although I think I was able to convincingly open and close my mouth close enough to make it seem like I knew was I was singing, but I didn’t! I still worshiped God and had a blast, but if anyone got glory out of that, God did because I sure as heck didn’t!

After some singing we where all blessed with a very inspiring sermon from Rick Warren. But the truly incredible thing was in the president’s speech after the sermon. I found out that Rick Warren is actually Paul KIGAME’s personal advisor! (along with the British prime minister) In the past three years Rick Warren has been to Rwanda ten times! When he comes to Rwanda he has his own room in the president’s house! (Not all of this did I find out from his speech, but it seemed like a good place to put the information!) The past three years the president has been putting into place many different and ground-breaking legislations based on Rick Warren’s teachings and effective April 5 (I believe) he is starting a nation-wide initiative called ’40 Days of Purpose’. It is the presidents goal to have every religious institution teaching and training it’s members in this course. KIGAME emphatically congratulated the religious sector of society for it’s contribution and partnership with the government. He said spoke about society being like a three legged chair. Government, business and faith-based organizations are what make up a successful society, without one of those legs, you cannot sit on the chair. (I notice how much of Canada’s society seems disjoined… kinda like we are trying to sit comfortably… balancing on a two legged chair!) This actually reminds me of an article I read in one of the papers here. I was shocked and SO encouraged… now I don’t remember all the details, but the president attended and spoke at a Muslim conference about a month ago. Now this immediately drew my attention for two reasons… one, because these past three months I cannot get the Muslim peoples out of my thoughts and prayers… (It’s been months where I’ve been having this passionate burden for this group of people… I don’t exactly understand it, but ever since researching more into Abraham’s family line and learning about Ishmael I’ve had this burden that has left me hungry to understand these distant brothers of ours.) … and also because, for all arguments sake, we can pretty much say that KIGAME is a Christian man! But here this article was, in detail, sharing what he spoke at this leadership conference. Most of it was words of encouragement and thanks to the Muslim community. Thanking them for being very strong members of society and helping make the country a better place. I was shocked and I realized that KIGAME has come to an understanding that many of us have forgotten or just have never realized.

So it was quite an encouraging session. After things finished up I went to leave and found myself amongst the entire Saddleback church crowd in the reception hall of the stadium. I met two men there, a man named Steve and Bob. If Rick Warren is the visionary of everything they are doing in Rwanda, then Bob is the brains! I was speaking to him about Jortosh and what we and I hope to accomplish within the country. He then called out this man named Steve. Steve, as it turns out, is the pastor of children. Both men where extremely interested in what I had to say and what we are doing here! I got permission to mail Bob when I get back in Canada, which I hope to do after developing a very detailed project proposal for what we are hoping to accomplish. Then, a very cool thing happened… Rick Warren came up to us, said hi to the other guys and looked and me and said “hey! I don’t know you…” and then gave me a huge bear hug! Ha-ha! (Really spoke my language!) I said goodbye and then Gigi, Joe, Claude, Bryan, Clarisse, and I went to that Italian restaurant I went earlier last month.

Monday was quick, we packed and cleaned for most of the day… then walked over to Scripture Union where we held a worship night. There ended up being near 30 people show up! Ezra led the worship and we all enjoyed Fanta and Mundazi (almost like a donut, but without the hole). Lasted about an hour and a half, Ezra and Patrick ended the night by dedicating two songs to Bryan and I. Truly enjoyed the whole night!

Well that’s pretty much the end of my Rwanda trip… We left the next morning, managed to get an African price and not a Muzungu price! (Very proud of myself!) My flight ended up being 3 hour postponed because of some malfunction or something on the plane. Apparently Rwandair is in big trouble lately because they where caught with a plane that was unfit for flight! So now they are really stepping up the inspection and maintenance.

Now I’m in South Africa! Hanging out with Timothy and Tasha-leigh! Been wonderful so far, went to the beach, had a few walks with Llewellyn… and the food… man… I almost forgot how wonderful food can be! Ha-ha! God Bless everyone, I’ll keep you guys up to date with what God does in these next two weeks!